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Serie A side Napoli are closing in on the arrival of a centre-back and have made key progress in a move for Chelsea’s Benoit Badiashile.
The centre-back fell out of favour last season, featuring less than 500 minutes in the Premier League.
Discussions between Napoli and Chelsea have been ongoing for many weeks and an important point has now arrived.
Gianluca Di Marzio has reported that there is a verbal agreement between the clubs over the transfer. Badiashile is expected to join the Italian side on an initial loan with an option to buy.
Napoli will pay Chelsea a loan fee of £2.5 million and this could rise to £3.4 million. Their option to buy Badiashile stands at £23 million.
Chelsea’s demand for the transfer was at £30 million and they have granted a discount to Napoli. The next step will see Aurelio de Laurentiis give his approval to the deal, especially as the Blues are demanding an extra £1 million. The Italian will have to give his go-ahead for that and everything now hinges on that.
Kaustubh Pandey – GIFN
